Amazon Instant Video: it's nice if you're an Amazon Prime customer, because it's free and is incapable of causing physical harm. That's been about the only upside though, given how shoddy its offerings have been. Enter CBS, who's just made things slightly less miserable over there.

Amazon's long-rumored video streaming service has finally arrived. But what is it, exactly?
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The Amazon-CBS deal will beef up the Instant Video catalog with 2,000 episodes, increasing the total streaming videos on offer by a third. You'll get full seasons from "The Tudors," "Cheers," the complete "Star Trek" franchise, and a terrible procedural crime shows thrown in for good measure. Later this summer, dozens of CBS shows will be added.

So good work, free thing! You're still not good. But at least you're better.

CBS and Amazon Announce Digital Video Licensing Agreement

NEW YORK and SEATTLE, July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — CBS Corporation and Amazon.com AMZN -0.07% today announced a non-exclusive licensing agreement that will enable Amazon customers to stream television shows from CBS's vast library. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Amazon Prime customers will be able to instantly watch thousands of episodes from the CBS library at no additional cost to their membership. With the deal, Amazon will add 2,000 episodes to grow the total number of Prime instant videos to more than 8,000 movies and television shows, and offer full seasons for 18 popular television series, including "The Tudors," "Numb3rs," "Medium," the complete "Star Trek" franchise, "Frasier" and "Cheers." Starting this summer, dozens of CBS shows will also become available to Amazon Instant Video customers.

"Our new deal with CBS makes Amazon Prime even better for customers," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com CEO. "We're excited to add thousands of popular CBS programs to our already great selection, all of which stream at no additional cost to Amazon Prime members."

"Amazon has created one of the most popular consumer marketplaces in the world, and we are very pleased to make these titles available to their Instant Video and Prime customers," said Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. "This new agreement represents another meaningful way for us to realize incremental value for CBS's content."